Comments on: Opposition: NT speed limits should be scrapped

By: TopEndBMWDriver

TopEndBMWDriver — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 11:19:31 +0000

2008 NT road toll was a 20 year high.

The Territory’s 2008 road toll was 75, the worst in more than two decades.

Without speed limits, a traffic branch or a points system the toll floated around 55 a year, but ever since the ‘road safety’ changes the toll has only gone up.

The imposition of these road taxes do nothing but to fill the public coffers while making the motorist feel guilty for the inadequacies of governments that cant, or wont design better roads or train drivers for the unexpected with the revenue they make from fines.

Why do we have to catch the revenue bus instead of educating drivers to look after themselves?

By: Geni

Geni — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 08:50:09 +0000

Recently I got to spend a couple of months in NT for work. And I think one reason *maybe* for the increase in the death roll is that most NT drivers are either suicidal, homocidal, or both, and stupid all the time. The number of times that I’d be cruising along at around 130 and have someone fly past me at around 150kmh when there is a blind corner about 50m ahead I lost count of. Now I’m a firm believer that speed isn’t the reason for most accidents, but when you are doing sh*te like that when you have no idea if there is a 4 trailor road train just about to come around that corner, then it shows that a lot of NT drivers simply don’t consider the possibility something might go wrong. I had one guy start to overtake me when I was doing 140kmh, in a similar situation, have to slam on his brakes because a roadtrain just popped around the corner about 150m ahead of us, or around a second away. Neither of us had much time to react, I hit the brakes hard to give him room to come across, but in his panic so did he, and in the end he bailed on the other side of the road probably about a quarter of a second before the roadtrain came past.

So I guess NT’s problem is not excess speed on the highways, its excess stupidity. When you’ve got roads that are straight for 10’s of kilometres, and yet people would rather overtake 100m from a blind corner or a crest, then clearly your driver training and your schools are letting you down. And the number of people that drink drive up there, yes, its hot and boring, so you spend most afternoons drinking, but crikey, for the one person that needs to drive everyone home, there is water available up there, so you don’t need to drive sauced.

By: John Parry

John Parry — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 07:25:05 +0000

Well, maybe the increased road toll is because travelling at slower speeds causes a)boredom, b)longer travelling times (fatigue).

We all know it is definitely not about safety, its about $$$. 130 is at least a reasonable limit, us Southerners have to put up with micro-management of speed limits, 100kph on freeways and motorways, quite pathetic really. Yet take a look at the quality of our roads, especially in Sydney. They are quite unbelievably bad.

Death on roads is inevitable. Imposing stupid speed restrictions is like using 100% more fuel for an extra 5% speed increase – it’s just plain stupid. But while the authorities get big $$$ from speeding fines we’ve got no chance. None at all.

By: TopEndGovDriver

TopEndGovDriver — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:23:56 +0000

Road toll for 2008

The road toll for the Northern Territory for 2008 to 14 July is 37.

For the same period last year (2007) the road toll was 23.

For the same period without speed limits (2006) was 18.

Speed limits = 37
Without limits = 18

By: Al Juraj

Al Juraj — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 10:49:46 +0000

The reason why accidents happen is not because of unlimited speed, but the fact that many motorists drive like crap. After acquiring the licence (especially the P), drivers get rowdy, feeling like they own the world, cutting off others whenever they want and doing all those arrogant movements on the road. Some others are just plain idiots, thinking they’re safe while they’re actually not.

By: Top End BMW Driver

Top End BMW Driver — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 11:39:42 +0000

Sure we had the ONLY unrestricted & undivided highway in the world, but the thing is that traffic is so little & the road so straight that a driver can see the road cut into the horizon. Easy to see any traffic coming on.

We had our WORST toll in 10 years under speed limits, with a police traffic branch & a point system to boot. It just goes to show what little southern rules do for our top end roads.

we need to think smarter, not harder. We had a good thing going with open limits, i just think it maybe needed a bit of fine tuning.

http://www.keepntlimitfree.org is working toward restoring open speed limits on our awesome Territory highways.

By: 4Runner

4Runner — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 07:04:17 +0000

RANT ON: The money generated by world car makers for high speed testing is huge. Every single person on a test team, up to 30 or 50 people at times, needs somewhere to eat and sleep, and be entertained.Multiply that by even just 10 car makers over 3 months of the year and you have more than a few million in revenue. Plus all the transport costs that come our way. I have driven on the NT hwy’s and the only thing i would recommend is dual carriage ways all the way along the stuart Hwy. The speed has never been a problem in the NT its the idiots that run red lights and cause accidents, the morons that get drunk and walk in front of traffic and get squashed.(both of which i have seen up there as a tourist) But to end this rant, speed has never been a major issue up there, its driver training, education, drink driving, not obeying normal basic road laws, and common sense. oh wait that sounds the same for all areas of australia! RANT OFF.

By: David

David — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 05:34:06 +0000

Sounds like some are spending too long behind the wheel at the lower speed to do the same distance.
I question the campaign of derestricted speed limits & anti speed cameras,missed the point that the weak link is in the drivers seat.
Poorly maintained clapped out 10-15 year old Commodore or Falcon at 160km/h NO THANKS,but some will do it spurred on possibly by what they read here regardless of what the speed limits are.
Better roads first then do something about driver attitudes.

By: hangman

hangman — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 05:10:49 +0000

Quite possible that the government isn’t as stupid and inept as we like to think. That this wasn’t a “knee-jerk” reaction, but rather them just capitalising on people’s deaths to implement the limits/demerit points for ulterior motives. In such a case they wouldn’t be about to reverse the decision in a hurry.

By: Ivan

Ivan — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 22:56:05 +0000

No Name, if you employ the “What if” situations, then you can also assume that anything can happen. But what people with common sense would do is to reduce the fatalities and not rely on chance as much as possible.

Sure it happens once in a while the occasional accident involving high speed loss of control. But as the stats mentioned in NT, it’s not the speed that kills, but the people not wearing seat belts (can be fatal even at 60km/h), drink driving, or maybe fatigue.

I live in WA and many accidents here (on the news) involved speed and drink driving. I can testify because I see a lot of cars just taking off at full throtle form traffic lights, trying to either show off or maybe just in a hurry.

Solution for australia….subsidise Race Days…

By: No Name

No Name — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 22:26:34 +0000

Cheers Boggy and Territory Guy. I see the other side now but I don’t necessarily agree. Simple “Speed Kills” but remember “What if”. What if some doing 120K’s moved into the path of a 250kmh german driving a Merc flat out. Waht if.

The economics of providing a free area to test in can’t be a great earner, can it?

By: Boggy

Boggy — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 22:08:47 +0000

Makes sense to me ….at least you guys wont fall asleep behind the wheel in boredom,as a proffessional driver myself ive never had fatigue driving “actively” !!! but passively is a different story

By: Territory Guy

Territory Guy — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 13:06:09 +0000

G’day, being able to drive & enjoy vehicles that can obtain & maintain speeds of up to 250kmh (electronically limited) used to be an absolute pleasure to drive in the N.T. Hell even taking the family Commodore or Falcon to 160kmh could keep the smile on mums & dads faces over the long distance trip. Very obviously from the new statistics, our new 130kmh speed limit is not helping to save the lives it was claimed it would.
I wonder if the new Chief Minister will have the backbone to reverse this decision and allow the world motoring industry back in to the N.T.?
To recommence it’s research & spending on hot weather & high speed testing – this revenue for the N.T was lost when the previous Chief said NO to open speeds. Show some real leadership for once and allow the Territorians a change to enjoy our wide open spaces, at the speed we decide.

By: KC

KC — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 05:54:31 +0000

Elitist, you can’t insure a car under your parents name anymore, it goes by the youngest driver listed on the policy.

Please check the facts behind your statements.

By: Elitist

Elitist — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 01:26:34 +0000

In Melbourne around northern suburbs, many ppl have died with passengers in cars due to high speed over powered cars they cant handle.. Just talking from experiences.

I think when NT put speed regulations on this highway they pretty much killed off an industry as well. German manufacturers used to use this strip to test their cars in the harsh conditions at full speeds… They now left and took it to America.

Australia kills all the fun…

By: No Name

No Name — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:45:00 +0000

I don’t think that th P platers driving less powered cars would make too little difference. Even in a thrashed 1400cc cars you can kill driven by a d1ckhead. I believe education is the key, banning them will just push them to drive without insurance and license. Thats what happened in Pommieland. When they do get caught they don’t give a toss and just carry on driving.

Regarding the increase in fatals in NT that may just be a coincidence over the reletively short period. Leave limits and apply them.

By: Elitist

Elitist — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 18:04:40 +0000

Speed doesn’t kill, wreckless drivers behind the cars that cant take high speeds do.
You could do more to save lives if you made a total ban on spoiled P platers driving i.e. WRX’s, HSV’s, Rice Racers…etc using their parents for insurance reasons.

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 14:53:41 +0000

Living in Darwin just talking to people around they knew the speed limits were not a good idea..
The only way someone will reverse them is if they promise it in the next local election and people will then vote for them..
Demerit points are not working either.. can we take them away too?

By: tony

tony — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 10:43:12 +0000

booking people for speeding is a great business – why would anyone want to give it up!!

By: Spitfire

Spitfire — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 05:15:24 +0000

So much for the speed kills mantra.